Earl Spencer claims future king Charles stamped his foot and told him 'you're lucky to be inheriting so young' on day of his father's funeral
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By MARK HOOKHAM, ASSISTANT EDITOR (INVESTIGATIONS)
Published: | Updated:
The future king stamped his foot and behaved like a 'petulant child' during an extraordinary conversation with Earl Spencer more than 30 years ago, Princess Diana's brother claims.
The earl claims that on the day of his father's funeral in April 1992, a frustrated Prince Charles told him that he was 'so lucky' to be inheriting the vast Spencer estate while he was still in his twenties.
The then Prince of Wales allegedly complained that, in contrast, his parents, the late Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, were treating him 'like a child'.
'At this he stamped his foot in emphasis,' Earl Spencer writes in his forthcoming memoir. 'I have to say, very much like a child; and a petulant one, at that.'
The bizarre exchange took place after the death of John Spencer, the 8th Earl Spencer.
At that point Charles Spencer, then aged 27, inherited the family's 13,000-acre estate at Althorp, Northamptonshire, as the 9th earl.
Charles Spencer, now 62, recalls how after his father's funeral service at a church in Northamptonshire, he, along with Prince Charles and Princess Diana gathered 'rather awkwardly' in Althorp's oak-panelled tapestry sitting room.
He writes: 'I shared that I had found it so moving to see my father's coffin being borne into the church by his six longest-serving male members of staff that I had started to cry.
Earl Spencer and then Prince Charles during the official opening of a fountain built in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales, in London's Hyde Park
Charles and Diana are seen visiting Venice during their trip to Italy in May 1985
'Then Prince Charles suddenly said: 'You're so lucky!'
'I was unsure if I had heard him right. 'I'm sorry, sir?'
'You're just so lucky – you know, inheriting when you're so young!' '
Earl Spencer claims that, 'warming to his theme', Prince Charles then added: 'You're inheriting this place in your twenties.
'And, I mean, I'm 43…and I employ 50 people… but my parents insist on treating me like – like a child!'
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